Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Kickstarter Day 15 (14 to go): in which the Kickstarter eats my brain (but I share Uluru pics)

Other authors warned me that running a Kickstarter would eat my brain. I believed them about the amount of work, but I laughed off the brain-eating part. Ha, ha. Today I sat down to actually do some writing (gasp!) for the first time in two weeks, intending to make some changes to my draft of Labyrinth of Flame based on critique group comments. But first, I thought, let me check the requirements for this photo collage thing I'm supposed to make with my son so he can bring it in to his kindergarten on his birthday and share his favorite stories about his life with the other kids. Only to discover that apparently I was supposed to have him bring it to school not on his birthday, but on the Monday of the week of his birthday, so it can hang in the classroom all week. In other words, I'm two days late on this. DOH. Feeling like the worst mother ever, I ditched my writing plans to frantically find and print out pictures. Ah, the life of the author-parent.

So, no book rec today, given that I'm typing this hastily while waiting for pics to upload off camera. But I'd already started a draft of this post last night (while congratulating myself on being so on top of things, HA HA), so you at least get some pics of Uluru (a.k.a. Ayers Rock) in central Australia.

The first is the classic long-distance shot, a view many Americans are familiar with:

Me with Uluru in background: the classic tourist shot

The rock looks all smooth. But the cool part is, when you get up close, it's anything but:

Lumpy, striated rock towering over acacia woodland

There are even little caves:

Cave on the side of Uluru

Uluru is sacred to the local Aboriginal people, who prefer that you do not climb the rock. They do encourage you to walk the 10.6km around the base. It's a beautiful hike; the patterns and shapes of the rock are amazing in their variety. Just make sure to bring a flynet, as the vast numbers and tenacity of the local flies are also amazing. (They don't bite, but they swarm around your mouth and nose and eyes, unless you've got a net to keep them off.) The views are totally worth inhaling a few flies, though. As a climber, I have to admit I heaved more than a few regretful sighs, staring at all that enticing rock; but there are many other places in the world to climb. This one should remain sacred.